Healthcare district honors top volunteers

JAMUL  When Joan Zeenkov’s 41-year-old daughter, Ellen, passed away, she was consumed by grief. It was the second death of a child for Zeenkov and her husband of 59 years, Seymour. The couple had lost another daughter, Barbara, at age 19, many years prior.

“The sadness never really goes away,” said Zeenkov, 83.

Zeenkov knew she needed an outlet to express her sorrow, and the retired San Diego Historical Society library researcher looked until she found the right fit with Sharp HospiceCare.

She first tried out patient care volunteer work, but the La Mesa resident said it “was too emotional; I couldn’t do it.” She found her calling in the group's Memory Bear program, which has given away thousands of dolls for grieving family members and friends who have lost loved ones.

Zeenkov and her husband were among six East County residents honored Wednesday by the Grossmont Healthcare District at its eighth annual Healthcare Heroes Awards luncheon at the Steele Canyon Golf Club in Jamul. Others feted were San Carlos resident Glenn Farber, El Cajon residents Nellie LaRussa and Chuck Robbins, and Santee resident Sandy Pugliese.

Zeenkov helped start the group’s Memory Bear program 12 years ago, and has now made more than 950 stuffed bear dolls herself for those who have lost loved ones. She said she averages 1½ to two bears a week, “depending on the complexity.”

More than 12,000 Sharp HospiceCare Memory Bears have been created by nearly 200 people. There are currently more than two dozen bear creators, most of them from East County.

The Memory Bears are plush, cuddly, stuffed dolls created by volunteer craftspeople who use garments worn by a deceased relative or friend. Zeenkov gets material from a surviving family member or friend of the person who has passed away, cuts the clothing apart and sews together a bear from a pre-made pattern.

Zeenkov isn’t always present for the presentation of a bear to a survivor, but she knows what an emotional experience it can be. She also understands how it can comfort a mourning person and play a role in the grieving process.

“It gives me a very warm feeling to do this,” she said. “I know that sometimes when people come to our office on Fletcher Parkway and take the bears out of their bag for the first time, there are tears streaming down their faces. One man I know told me he put his bear on his wife’s side of the bed a long time after she had passed.”

The family of a young soldier who died in Iraq asked the Sharp HospiceCare Memory Bears makers to create bears from the man’s uniform for his mother, father and sister.

Zeenkov said she made clothes for her four children when they were little, but hadn’t touched a sewing machine for nearly 30 years. She said “it was like riding a bike,” and got right back to her creative comfort zone in no time.

Her husband, who just turned 90, also was honored, but he said the spotlight should be on his wife.